Tiny Fighter – ‘Hollow Talk’

Stockholm-based indie-pop duo Tiny Fighter had a breakthrough with the video for their song, ‘New Century’, introducing them to a worldwide audience via the dreamlike clip shot on 360 degree camera. We featured the video back in January here, winning not just praise from us (“a name to watch out for”), but also from Oh Es Tee (“a whirlwind of a video”), New Sick Music (“a video that makes you feel as though the world is endless, and, yes, tiny”), and other publications. Comprising Australian multi-instrumentalist Tim Spelman and Swedish singer-songwriter Therese Karlsson, Tiny Fighter have returned with their new track, ‘Hollow Talk’.

For this clip they’ve joined up with fellow Stockholm artists, Alexandra and Silja-Marie Kentsdottir, and there’s a distinctly Scandinavian flavour to the video, even though the song itself was recorded in Los Angeles. Produced by Daniel Reymer, known for his work with Foals, it’s a song in two parts. Starting off hushed and reverent, it builds up, layer by layer, adding more and more instrumentation, turning the song into a grand and complex composition.

The Kentsdottir sisters have built a name for themselves working in food, and travel videos, advertisements, and vlogs on YouTube, but they’re best known in Stockholm as visionary music video directors. They’ve worked with Swedish icons including Jens Hult, Brothers Among Wera, and Eric Saade, and their videos are typified by their cinematic quality and focus on the faces of their subjects. Eyes, cheeks, singing mouths. This is very noticeable in ‘Hollow Talk’ where there is much made of close-up shots of Therese Karlsson’s lips. The whole shoot is otherworldly, restrained by a small room, shafts of light coming through a window’s slats. The video as with the music, builds up – Therese goes from singing, standing perfectly still, to storming out of the room, out of the building, and into brightly lit daylight, before sitting down under a highway overpass. Dramatic and moving, it’s in perfect sync with the music.

Published by Lisa Hafey

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.
Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com
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